Fur quality?

[sheilaandroses]

Hi, I'm Sheila, and I've had my beige chinchilla Kodah for about 6 months. I've seen other chinchillas fur and it seems to look a lot more... how do I explain... dense? Like it has no spaces in between it's fur. (I hope you understand what I mean.) I don't know if it has to do with the diet or the dust or whatever. My chinchilla gets held everyday and petted a lot. I feed him Mazuri pellets along with alfalfa hay. His previous owner gave me a huge thing of dust called "Sunthing Special" so I don't know how high quality that stuff is. He seems to have a slight pasty or chalky like feel to his fur when he's done, and I don't know if that's supposed to happen. I bathe him about every three days. Is there any dust you'd recommend? He also sometimes has tiny tufts of fur sticking out, but I here that's normal. Anyways, any recommendations?

 

[tunes]

Some chins just have thin fur. It's genetics, not anything you are or aren't doing. I am unfamiliar with the dust you are talking about, but the best dust is Blue Cloud, which cannot be purchased through a pet store. The tiny tufts of fur are most likely him priming, which is kind of like a dog shedding.

As far as the Mazuri, most people feed a timothy hay with an alfalfa based pellet. Mazuri is alfalfa based, and adding in alfalfa hay is providing him with an awful lot of protein, which Mazuri is already pretty high in. I would look into getting some good quality timothy hay instead.

 

[ChinnyMom]

you can buy Blue Cloud at petsmart, but some people say the jars sold there have a petroleum smell to the dust. i don't find they smell like that at all. it's pricier than heck at petsmart, but if you only have one chin, a jar should last you a while.

and yes, with an alfalfa based pellet you should feed a grass hay (timothy, orchard, etc). Oxbow brand hay is good, and if you don't want to have to pay for shipping you can get it at petsmart as well. not as fresh as what you would get from a feed store or online, but it solves the issue of expensive shipping if you are only buying for one chin.

 

[sheilaandroses]

Thank you guys! I will look into where to get him Blue Cloud and alfalfa... any recommendations?